THE HOLY GITA, SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION, CHAPTER 5, VERSE NUMBER 3

THE HOLY GITA

SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION:

CHAPTER 5

VERSE NUMBER 3

Text in Transliteration:

njeyah sa nityasamnyaasi yon a dvesti na kaariksati

nirdvandvo hi mahabaaho sukham bandhaat pramucyate

Text in English:

He should be known a constant Sanyasin, who neither hates nor desires; free from the pair of opposites, O mighty-armed, he is easily set from bondage.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

It is not ‘sanyasa’ if a man renounces duty due to dislike; neither is it ‘sanyasa’ if he delights in escaping from duty. Selfishness masquerades here as self-denial! Then there is the man who mistakes the inertia in himself for equilibrium. His delight in slothfulness is interpreted as delight in the Self. It is not action but attitude that binds or liberates man. The emptiness of the posed tranquillity gets itself exposed in tribulation. But the karma yogi is proof against imaginary quietude. In the midst of intense activities he is free from likes and dislikes. True tranquillity is therefore tangible in him. While acting he is not the agent; while being in the world, he is not of the world. therefore the karma yogi alone is the true ‘karma sanyasi’

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

nityasamnyaasi; one who has ever the spirit of renunciation. The true worker (karmayogin) is also the true renouncer (nityasanyasin), for he does his work in a detached spirit.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

 A man does not become a ‘Sannyasi’ by merely giving up actions because of laziness or ignorance or some family quarrel or calamity or unemployment. A true ‘Sannyasi’ is not a hypocritical coward.

The Karma Yogi who neither hates pain and the objects which give him pain, nor desires pleasure and the objects that give him pleasure, who has neither attachment nor aversion to any sense-objects and who has risen above the pairs of heat and cold, joy and sorrow, success and failure, victory and defeat, gain and loss, praise and censure, honour and dishonour, should be known as a perpetual ‘Sannyasi’ though he is ever engaged in action.

One need not have taken ‘Sannnyasa’ formally but if he has the above mental attitude, he is a perpetual Sannyasi. Mere ochre-coloured robe cannot make one a ‘Sannyasi’. What is wanted is a pure heart with true renunciation of egoism and desires. Physical renunciation of objects is no renunciation at all. (Cf. VI. 1)

Comments by the blogger:

Here Arjuna is called ‘mahaabaaho’ or O mighty-armed, which denotes actions. Actions carried out with no stake in the result is true sanyasa or renouncement. Tranquillity is an inner matter and can hardly ever be faked. And a perpetual sanyasi or a man given to perpetual renouncement is free from the pairs of opposites.

For us how difficult it is to be free of pair of opposites! The good tide makes us hit the roof and anything bad hits us hard where it matters.

Once, Sri Ramakrishna went to attend a family function of a devotee. Though he was there for less than half an hour he could not bear the worldly men’s conversation with regard to worldly things. And he would never touch money. Once, when he was asleep, someone touched his body with a coin and it gave him such pain that he woke up in pain!

Inner Tranquillity also cannot be faked. Either it is there or not there. Once, the English Writer of fame, Somerset Maugham came to see the South Indian Saint of his time, namely, Ramana Maharishi. Maugham had many a question to ask of a real man of renouncement; but when he arrived at the Temple abode of the great Saint in Tiruvennamalai in Tamil Nadu, he came to understand the saint rarely, if ever, spoke. And his language was absolute silence. The great writer was sort of disappointed. But once he entered the big hall where the great saint was seated and sat there along with hundreds of others, within half an hour he felt deep inside him that all the questions he had come to ask had been sufficiently answered!

The Lord of Gita suggest the student with great arms to indulge in non-stop actions without entangling himself in to the pair of opposites. That would be true renouncement. It is not for Arjuna to go into the forest and eat beggar’s bread. He is a mighty man of mighty action. He should find his salvation through unselfish and selfless actions only.

 We should try to always not to become prey to honour and dishonour and pain and joy. It is an attempt and every attempt counts. Subramniy Barati, the twentieth century trend-setting poet in Tamil writes, “O, good heart, please bless your enemy!” By blessing our enemy we come to get great spiritual power. Every evil thought even against our worst enemy return back to roost. And with the result, we suffer. There is yet another and more arduous method of blessing our enemy: when we worship the Lord, we should pray for our enemies. And this we should never reveal to anyone. Then our inner spiritual strength would grow multi-fold.